The striker trained at AS Saint-Étienne, Bafetimbi Gomis, spoke for nearly 2 hours to the media “carré”. He notably talks about his time in Forez, from the training center to the Europa League. Here are his words.
“I wasn’t a phenomenon” (Gomis on his time at ASSE)
Bafé Gomis: “My brother was the first at home to detect something in football, he had made me a roadmap which consisted in particular of being part of the Var team. He knew that by this means, I would attract the eye of recruiters. It did not fail, I had a choice and I quickly opted for Saint-Étienne. I had Cannes, Rennes and Auxerre too. At Saint-Étienne it worked, I had a good feeling with the leaders of Saint-Étienne. They had a very good approach with my parents. The support they offered and the many Senegalese players for the signing were important. When I received very early in my career, it was the logical continuation to give back very quickly in my career.”
“I was one of the three best of my generation. We had a great training, well surrounded at Saint-Étienne but I wasn’t a phenomenon. I was someone who had the obligation to work hard. That’s why I had trouble moving up from the CFA to Ligue 1. That’s why it was through loans, particularly to Troyes, where the fact of entering a locker room where you are expected and you have to show what you are capable of, it did me good on a sporting and human level. I wasn’t taken on like the youngster who came from the training center. You have to have a lot of confidence to assert yourself because the others are men, they are fathers. You have to assert yourself before asserting yourself on the field, you have to do it in the locker room. There is a battle of egos.
“Saint-Etienne managed Allan Saint-Maximin very badly”
“For example, Allan Saint-Maximin, one of the greatest talents trained by Saint-Étienne and even one of the greatest French talents, Saint-Étienne managed him badly. He should never leave the club for 5-6 million for Monaco. It’s true that he must have been difficult to manage, but we must find the means to do it. It’s the same with Lyon today on the Cherki case. As French, we have difficulty accepting certain things that we will accept abroad.”
“When I come back from Troyes, there are always these players who were important to me like Camara, Piquionne, Feindouno, the big brothers. This generation deserved to win a trophy. They didn’t manage to do it due to a lack of discipline, rigor, ambition. I have this image of the cup semi-final in Strasbourg where it was almost a win and we could have gone to the Stade de France and we got through it. It’s this generation that allowed me to see and not repeat the same mistakes.
When Roussey takes the reins, there is a reshuffle. He makes sure that I am the leader of the attack. I was not the captain but I was the big brother of Blaise Matuidi who I knew at Troyes, of Mamadou Dabo, of Benalouane and Perrin who we played together at the training center. I have the costume of a player who is trained at the club, who plays the panther and I am a bit the locomotive of this team with experienced players like Landrin, Dernis, Feindouno, Janot. It is going relatively well, we finish in European qualifications after 30 years of absence “explains Bafé Gomis.
“If I had to do it again, I would do it differently and leave the house clean.”
Bafé Gomis: “To earn my place in the French team at that time, I should have left. Afterwards, I learned from that season but it would have been better to go and play in the Champions League, in big clubs. I had discovered the European league with the Greens but out of love for ASSE and my teammates but also out of fear of foreign countries because I only spoke the language of Molière at that time, it was difficult to get out of my comfort zone. If I had to do it again, I would do it differently to leave the house clean.
At that time, I had Chelsea, Manchester, Marseille, Paris, I had quite a few clubs interested. It’s normal when you play in a legendary club like Saint-Étienne but which is not a big name, you attract attention! At that time, I played in the European Cup with Saint-Étienne. I had a coach with whom I had great confidence. I have regrets, I would have preferred the story to end differently. I learned a lot and there is always a path that is destined for us and it was mine. Today I can boast of having experienced everything with the green jersey. I had seasons of brushing the national at Geoffroy-Guichard to treading the pitch in the European Cup and then saving the club on the last day against Valenciennes.
“I was trained more as a pivot than as a killer. When you come out of a year where you were prolific… we expect you! Except that when you are young, you thought that you would work 15/20 minutes in goal and that was good, but no! You have to get up on Monday morning and that until Saturday telling yourself that the defender on Saturday, he died with me! I will be careful about the time I sleep, what I eat etc. It is a French problem. What we must tell young people is that you have to perform well to have money and not the other way around! By scoring goals everywhere in France, in Turkey, in Saudi Arabia, I got the just reward for things.”
